Terror Trials Test Prosecutors

Three Cases Could Boost, or Harm, Effort to Use Civil Courts, Not Military Ones

By

Charles Levinson

March 2, 2014 8:02 p.m. ET

NEW YORK—The trial of Osama bin Laden son-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is set to open Monday in Manhattan federal court, kicking off what looks to be one of the biggest years for terrorism prosecutors since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The trial of the alleged al Qaeda spokesman—who appeared alongside bin Laden in a video the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon—is the first of three marquee terrorism cases...